Specflow Feature files with same steps causing multiple browser instances to launch

Question

I have at least 3 .feature files in my C# Specflow tests project in which I have the step, for instance:

Given I am at the Home Page

When I first wrote the step in the file Feateure1.feature and created the step method, I placed it in a step file, let's say, Steps1.cs, which inherits from a base class that initializes a FirefoxDriver. All my StepsXXXX.cs classes inherit from this base class.

Then, I wrote Feature2.feature, which also has a step Given I am at the Home Page. And the step was automaticaly bound to the one in Steps1.cs

'Till now, no problem. That's pretty much what I wanted - to have reusable steps throughout the test project. But the problem is, whenever I'm running a scenario that has steps in diferent StepsXXXX files, I get various browser instances running.

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I'm pretty sure this is due to the fact that My StepsXXXX (binding classes) all inherit from this base class that has a IWebDriver of its own, and when the step is called, everything else (including the before/after scenario methods) is called. But I can't figure out how to work around this.

I still want reusable steps. I tried to put these steps in the base class, but it did not work. I thought of changing the bindings too, but specflow uses meaningfull strings to do so, and I don't want to change them to misleading strings.

Has anyone stumbled across this? Any help is really appreciated.

Answer 1

You can use Scoped bindings using [Scope(Tag = "mytag", Feature = "feature title", Scenario = "scenario title")] to referred on specific scenario or feateure like this:

Feature: Feateure1

Scenario: demo
Given I am at the Home Page
When ....

[Binding, Scope(Feature = "Feateure1")]
public class Steps1{

 [Given(@"Given I am at the Home Page")]
 public void GivenIAmAtTheHomePage(){
  {  }
}

Feature: Feateure2

Scenario: demo
Given I am at the Home Page
When ....
...

[Binding,Scope(Feature = "Feateure2")]
public class Steps2{

 [Given(@"Given I am at the Home Page")]
 public void GivenIAmAtTheHomePage(){
 {  }

}